grasshoppers!

My garden is overrun with tiny grasshoppers! So far they have decimated my marigolds, kale, chard, raab and beans. Oh my poor beans, 45 plants and not a single one survived long enough to get it’s first set of leaves. I did try row covers last week before all seeds had all emerged but I fear that I merely trapped the little buggers in there with a feast.

We are now experimenting with garlic oil spray on kale and marigolds. We are also going to try a bean experiment. In the first part of our experiment we will re-seed half the row and spray the top of the soil with garlic oil in the hope that this will disperse the pests. After a few days we will then replace the row cover. I will start some seeds in the greenhouse and spray with garlic oil when I transplant. We will see if either of these methods proves effective.

Garlic Spray
Target insects: Aphids, cabbage loopers, grasshoppers, June bugs, leafhoppers, mites, squash bugs, slugs and whiteflies. May also help to repel rabbits! Never use oils sprays on Blue Spruce as it will remove the blue waxy coating on the needles! Because garlic contains naturally occurring sulfur it also acts as an antibacterial agent and fungus preventative.

To make: Combine 3 ounces of minced garlic cloves with 1 ounce of mineral oil. Let soak for 24 hours or longer. Strain.
Next mix 1 teaspoon of fish emulsion with 16 ounces of water. Add 1 tablespoon of castile soap to this.
Now slowly combine the fish emulsion water with the garlic oil. Kept in a sealed glass container this mixture will stay viable for several months. To use: Mix 2 tablespoons of garlic oil with 1 pint of water and spray.
When working with oil sprays you want to monitor the climate conditions so your plants won’t get phytotoxic burn. Use this simple equation: Take the current outdoor Fahrenheit temperature then add to this the percentage of humidity, if the total is more than 140 don’t spray.
Example: Temperature of 80 degrees plus humidity of 67 percent equals 147, don’t spray. You also do not want to spray when temps are above 80F.